Nothing says Mother’s Day like angry gods, shipwreck, cannibalism, gratuitous nudity, riotous drunkenness, a blinded Cyclops, and the wholesale slaughter of one’s rivals.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t thinking when I did the programming for the latest installment of “The Lost Chord.” But dads should love this hour of high adventure and satisfied bloodlust, as we listen to musical evocations of Odysseus’ homeward journey.
Odysseus, of course, is one of the heroes of the Trojan War, waylaid time and again upon his return by Poseidon and the frailties of his own men. It takes him ten years to find his way back to Ithaca. When he gets there, he finds his wife beset by boorish suitors all vying for her hand and his throne.
What happens next pushes all the same buttons that are still pushed whenever Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger apply the camouflage and begin strapping on their bandoliers and sheathing their big knives. In the process, there’s also some meaningful father-son bonding.
So maybe it would have been a more appropriate choice for Father’s Day. Hopefully there are some mothers out there who were also classics majors. I hope you’ll me for “Home Sweet Homer,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6. You can listen to it on Father’s Day as a webcast, if you want, at http://www.wwfm.org.